Antonia Michaelis Quotes & Sayings

As long as you're better at it than skating ... , Anna said and stood up too. She wanted to say more, but that wasn't possible because he was kissing her. Reasonable Anna wanted to draw back the danger of touch. But unreasonable Anna welcomed the kiss like happiness. Maybe, she thought, it's better to take these moments when you get them - there might not be too many in life. — Antonia Michaelis

It was a disaster ... It was the most wonderful thing in the world. — Antonia Michaelis

What does that mean?' Anna whispered. 'What does that all mean?
Abel ran his fingers through her hair again, and his hand wandered down and stayed on her throat. 'It means everything,' he whispered back. 'And nothing. — Antonia Michaelis

The words that I will have to find for that explanation will be sharp and they will hurt, much worse than the thorns of roses. — Antonia Michaelis

Dance me through th curtains that our kisses have out worm.
Raise a ent of shelter now, though every thread is torn.
Dance me to the end of love.
Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin. — Antonia Michaelis

And she imagined how things could be later. It was stupid, but the picture just appeared in her mind. Abel and Magnus shoveling snow together ... in twenty years, in thirty. Magnus had grown old, his broad back still strong but bent from time, his hair nearly white at the temples. And Abel ... Abel was a different Abel, an adult one, one who was absolutely self-confident and didn't let his eyes dart around the room at lunch, as if he were caught in trap.
"Nonsense," she whispered. "Thirty years? You don't stay with the person you meet at seventeen ... what kind of fairy tale are you living in, Anna Leemann?"
And still the picture seemed right. — Antonia Michaelis

Adults were always quick to tell her how much she looked like her mother, and how little like her father. Though Anna thought that on the inside she was much more like him. There was this strong, unbreakable will in her to fight for something, somwhere. But where? for what? and against whom? — Antonia Michaelis

Go away princess. Leave your outlaw alone. You won't change him ... go away, Anna, far away, and don't ever come back. The fairy tale doesn't have a happy ending. — Antonia Michaelis

Next to that dragon Micha had wirtten: 'KIS EacH OthER'.
Abel looked at Anna. Anna looked at Abel.
'She is the little queen,' said Abel, 'in our fairy tale, at least.'
'One must obey the queen,' said Anna. — Antonia Michaelis

Anna watched as Abel walked across the empty schoolyard, she wondered whether there was a limit to desolation or whether it grew endlessly, infinitely. Desolation with a hundred faces and more, desolation of a hundred different kinds and more, like the color blue. — Antonia Michaelis

You didn't see us," she said to Anna ...
"I was ... lost in thought," Anna replied.
"What were you thinking about?"
"You," Anna said. "Isn't that strange? I was thinking of you two so hard that I didn't see you. — Antonia Michaelis

But what does he want my heart for?" the little queen asked.
"He just wants to own it," replied the sea lion. "That is enough. He wants to look on its beauty and know that his hands alone can touch it. — Antonia Michaelis

In a dream, in a fairytale, nothing has to be explained, everything happens of its own accord. — Antonia Michaelis

The place in her, though, where her tears should have come from, was rough and dry. No, she didn't find any tears in herself to cry for the storyteller.
The storyteller didn't exist anymore. — Antonia Michaelis

I can't be forgiven so I am not asking you for forgiveness. We lost each other, and we will never find each other again. — Antonia Michaelis

They saw him walk away, leave a world he'd never really been part of. They saw him pull his hat down low and get onto his bike. He forgot the Walkman's earplugs. Maybe, Anna thought, he didn't need them anymore; maybe the white noise had finally made it into his head. — Antonia Michaelis

A story isn't a good one unless it has a good listener — Antonia Michaelis

I'm doing a thousand new things in spite of myself," he said. "It's not easy, you know, to jump over your shadow. — Antonia Michaelis

Abel was brushing the snow off his parka while Micha was dancing around him, still balancing the plate of cookies, singing, 'We're staying, we're staying, we're staying overnight! We're drying! We're drying! We're drying on the line! — Antonia Michaelis

If we lose each other, we'll meet where it's spring. — Antonia Michaelis

I am not staying with the murderer," she said, her words muffled by his jacket. "I am not staying with the victim Abel Tannatek or the culprit Abel Tannatek. I am staying with the storyteller. — Antonia Michaelis

Abel put his hands on her shoulders. "You're cold. You're shivering."
She nodded. "It's not important ... "
"Sure it is," and then, in a very low voice, with a private kind of smile, he said, "Rose girl, I told you the branches would wither and you would freeze. You wanted to stay on board ... "
Anna nodded. "I'm staying. — Antonia Michaelis

Sometimes I don't even know if I'm extremely happy or extremely sad. It happens a lot when I think of you — Antonia Michaelis

You can't change things. That's life. Poor stays poor, rich says rich, and those two, they will never meet. — Antonia Michaelis

Possibly, she thought, the pool of answers was limited. There are fewer answers in the world than questions, and if you ask me now why that is so, I must tell you that there is no answer to that question. — Antonia Michaelis

They're the ones inside a soap bubble. Not me. — Antonia Michaelis

Part of her - unreasonable Anna- still loved him. Maybe she would never stop loving him. — Antonia Michaelis

Just a tiny little pain,
Three days of heavy rain,
Three days of sunlight,
Everything will be alright,
Just a tiny little pain. — Antonia Michaelis

Anna, he said for the fourth time, as if there was nothing more to say, now that she'd finally answered. Nothing but her name. As if he'd just called to make sure she existed. — Antonia Michaelis

And the snow that fell onto the roof in winter ... it fell softly ... softly ... and it covered the house, the armchair, the books, the children's voices. It covered Anna and Abel, covered their parallel world, and everything was finally, very, very quiet. — Antonia Michaelis

Where does someone go when he dies?', 'When does fear end?', 'Where are all the single socks that disappeared in the washing machine? — Antonia Michaelis

Nothing was perfect, but everything was all right. The light was never just blue. — Antonia Michaelis

She didn't know if this excitement was fueled by her ambition to find out something that nobody else knew. Or by the anticipation of finding out. — Antonia Michaelis

Abel lifted her up - another gesture from former times, from when she'd been smaller - and carried her to the bathroom to find the Band-aid. Suddenly, Anna thought, she's growing up. One day, she'll be too big to be carried around like that. One day, he won't be able to hold onto her, she'll move on, and he'll be left all alone. Maybe the responsibility for Micha is more of an anchor than a burden. A lifeboat. A wooden plank to hold onto so you don't drown. — Antonia Michaelis

In love, there is no criticism. In love, there is no rationality — Antonia Michaelis

He looked at the gun. "Aren't you afraid?"
"Of course I am," Anna said. "Of course I'm afraid. But that doesn't help."
He shook his head. "No," he said, "it doesn't help to be afraid. Bad things happen anyway. You're right. — Antonia Michaelis

I don't know what happened between the two of you. I don't know if it can be forgiven. The hardest thing always is to forgive yourself. — Antonia Michaelis

The white noise from the old Walkman enveloped them both; like a blanket of new snow, it draped itself over them, shutting out all the curious looks.
And the world under the blanket was - surprisingly, wonderfully - absolutely, quiet. — Antonia Michaelis

That cloak of love you were wearing - he's torn it to shreds, undoing the seams of trust that held it together. How can you ever wear those shreds? — Antonia Michaelis

Everybody knew everything now. Or did everybody know nothing? Nobody knew anything ... Nobody could know everything. — Antonia Michaelis

She had taught herself how to knit, and for the mare's scarf - it was green - she had given herself the best grade possible. And ... '
'That's silly!' Micha giggled.
'Well, who is the cliff queen, you or me?' Abel asked. 'It isn't my fault if you're giving yourself grades! — Antonia Michaelis

That was how she saw the storyteller for the last time - in an absolutely silent world, in a staircase. He'd hit his target.
When she fell into darkness, she knew that she would never see him again.
She'd love him to the very end. — Antonia Michaelis

If you have known someone your whole life, you can see them in the dark. — Antonia Michaelis

There was the place where all the shouted words fall into the water. They're too weak to make it from shore to shore. I saw the words underwater, millions of them; they're lying there on the bottom of the sea, a whole load of wrecked sentences, sentences that never reached their destination, questions from one side and answers from the other ... — Antonia Michaelis

Anna took his hand to gauge the swelling. 'Let's at least put something cold around it. Frozen peas work pretty well.'
'Do I have to eat them?'
'No, you just have to inject them into a vein,' Anna said. — Antonia Michaelis